May 4, 2010 – MLB announced that Francisco Liriano won the AL Pitcher of the month award. Liriano was the only starter in the AL with an ERA of under 1.00 in April. In April, Liriano had a 3-0 record when he started 4 games and pitched a total of 29 innings while striking out 27 batters and giving up only 18 hits and finishing the month with an ERA of 0.93. The last Twins pitcher to win the award was Johan Santana back in September of 2006.
It will be interesting to see if Francisco Liriano who was once dubbed “The Franchise” can continue the roll that he is on. I worry about how Liriano handles adversity, in his last start he had a rough first inning but seemed to take it all in stride. Let’s hope that Liriano is back and can assume the role of the staff ace.